Soul of Determination (Novelization of the Pacifist Route)
by Hakuhunter
Summary: Frisk had learned all his life that monsters were evil, but that view changes when he gets trapped in the underground. He soon learns it might not be all that black and white. Things quickly heat up when Frisk learns about the SAVE function and how he can manipulate the world around him. Will Frisk overcome these trials with his new friends, or will he succumb to the megalomania?


**Greetings, readers, and welcome to my new Undertale story. This is my first Undertale story, though I've written other stories before. First of all, I'd like to thank you for checking out my story. I do hope that you'll enjoy it.**

 **Now, if you didn't figure it out from the description, yes, Frisk is indeed male in this story. I would have liked to make a story where Frisk was genderless and had no name, (to stay with cannon) but I figured that would make it quite hard to connect with them as a character, so I had to take some artistic listing for this.**

 **This chapter is mostly character and world building. The game doesn't actually start until the next chapter. I know that I don't need world building on fanfiction, since you all already know it, but I still find it necessary for me, at least.**

 **And with that all out of the way, please enjoy.**

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"Does it hurt?"

"Huh? Does what hurt?"

"Your shoulder."

"Oh, this? It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

The sound of birds chirping in the evening air echoed all throughout the mountain. Mt. Ebott was very quiet most of the time, and as such, if anything did happen on the it, the sound would make its way all across the mountain. But, nothing much did happen on it. Occasionally, animals like birds and goats were seen living on the large hill, but that was about it. No humans settled on it, and most stayed as far away from it as possible. The closest city to it was few miles, and even then, the townspeople stayed clear of it. They feared it, and for good reason.

Seven.

That's how many people had climbed the mountain in the past. Back then, no one really afraid of the mountain, so a few people decided to try and get to the top. Sometimes it was for recognition, sometimes it was for fun and exercise. Other times, it was just a simple dare. Get to the top of Mt. Ebott and back. For any reason, seven different people climbed Mt. Ebott.

Six.

That's how many never returned, and the one that did make it back returned dead, in the arms of a monster, killed by one of those wretched creatures of the deep. They had been trapped underground by a magical barrier, so no one knew how this one got past it.

Because of all these disappearances, people near the mountain started to think that it was cursed. Sufficed to say, no one enjoyed the mountain's presence and everyone stayed very far away from it in fear.

Well, almost everyone.

"Are you sure?" a feminine voice rang out through the mountain. "You wouldn't put a bandage on something that was 'nothing.'"

"Honestly, I'm fine," another voice echoed, this time belonging to a male. "My mother made me put on this bandedge."

Two, small figures slowly hiked up the mountain, their silhouettes standing out from their green surroundings in the dying light of the day.

"Really, I think she was just overreacting," the left one continued. He took his left hand and put it on his other bandage wrapped shoulder. A little red had bled into the white of the medical cast. "I tried to tell her it was fine, but she wouldn't listen."

"Yeah, mothers can be like that sometimes," the second one said, her voice like a chime. "So, why don't you take it off?"

The first one wiped one of his brown bangs out of his face as he looked up the mountain. They still had some way to go if they wanted to make it to the top. He couldn't see the summit clearly, as the trees that covered the mountain blocked his vision, but he was confident that they still had some climbing to do until they reached the peak.

"Frisk?" the girl said to get the boy's attention, as he clearly hadn't heard her question before.

"Huh?" the boy named Frisk looked down from the summit and back to the girl at his side.

"The bandedge," she reiterated. "Why don't you take it off? Doesn't all that stiffness make it harder to move your arm? Your mom's not here, so she wouldn't know that you took it off."

Frisk tilted his head as he thought about this. "Well, I could, but I would just have to put it back on when we got to the city, or my mom would freak out. Carrying it around might also be a hassle, not to mention gross. No, I'll just keep it on."

"Alright, I can understand that," Anna agreed with a nod. "How did you hurt your shoulder anyway?"

Frisk and the girl continued to walk up the mountain, their legs pumping up the semi-steep incline. Frisk's red, heart-shaped locket jiggled around his neck every time he took a step. The constant noise would have annoyed other people, but Frisk found it nice, almost like a steady beat to hike to.

"I was running too fast in my house and slammed it into a corner," Frisk replied.

"Ow." The girl shuddered. "That must have hurt.

"Nah, not that much," Frisk said with a wave of his hand, passing it off as nothing. What Frisk didn't tell her was that it did hurt a lot, and right now he was just playing it cool.

As the two of them continued to go up, the girl's eyes drifted to the ground where she spotted a group of yellow flowers blooming. She stopped briefly and knelt down to pick up one of the plants. The girl plucked it from the ground and gave it a smell. The flower had a sweet scent to it, one that all flowers had. No matter what kind they were, all flowers have a pleasant smell to them.

"Hey, Anna," Frisk called out. He did not notice that the girl had stopped walking with him as he had gone farther ahead before realizing she was no longer by him.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself," Anna apologized. She took the flower and put it in her long, blonde hair before getting back up on her feet and catching up to Frisk. He let out a small sigh.

"You sure do love your flowers, huh?" he commented. Anna responded with a genuine smile.

"Of course, what's not to love?" She made it back up to Frisk, and the two continued to walk upwards. "They're beautiful, smell lovely, and each one of them is different in their own unique way. Again, what's not to love?" Anna repeated. "I am surprised that some are blooming this early into spring, though I'm not complaining," she said with another smile.

Frisk rolled his eyes. He still didn't understand what was the big deal with them. They were just plants, right? He just passed it off as a 'girly thing.'

The two walked a little bit more in silence before Anna said something else.

"This mountain is so much larger than you would think when looking at it from a distance," Anna said, looking up to the summit, hoping that it wouldn't take too much longer to get up.

"All mountains are like that," Frisk said offhandedly. Anna quietly questioned how many mountains that Frisk had actually climbed to be able to say that.

Anna gave her confident friend a glance and noticed something she had not noticed before.

"Hey, this is a little off topic," Anna started, "but, is that shirt new? I don't think I've seen you wear it before."

"Oh this?" Frisk looked down and straighten out his shirt. "No, it's not new. I've worn it before. Have you not seen me with it?"

"I don't think so. I feel like I would remember a distinct blue shirt like that, what with purple stripes. It looks nice on you."

"Thanks," Frisk said with a nod.

Anna once again looked up to the summit. "It almost looks like we haven't moved. Maybe we should turn back?" she said, starting to lose her confidence.

"What? No way!" Frisk exclaimed, his hand slicing the air to show his spirit. "We've made it this far, haven't we? Why would we quit now?"

"Because it's cold, and the sun is setting, " Anna complained. "We won't be able to get all the way up this and be back before dark. Our parents will wonder where we went and get worried. I'm starting to think this all was a bad idea."

Frisk let out a short laugh. "Come on, that's easy. We'll just sneak into our house and pretend that we were there the whole time. Remember? That's what we always used to do."

Anna nodded while hugging her arms. She shivered a bit.

"And it's not _that_ cold," Frisk added.

"How can you say that? You're the one in shorts!" Anna exclaimed.

Frisk shrugged. "I just don't feel it."

Anna rolled her eyes. She was over here freezing with a sweater and sweatpants on, and Frisk 'wasn't feeling it' in shorts.

"What's more, are you not afraid at all of the fact that people have gone missing on this mountain?"

"Not really," Frisk answered with another shrug. "It's not like that's going to happen to us. We'll be careful. And hey, you can't be that afraid of it either, since you agreed with me to come here in the first place."

Anna's face was hard to read. "Well…still."

Anna still looked hesitant, so Frisk gestured with his hand.

"Come on, there's nothing to fear. Let's keep going. If we keep at it, I know we'll make it up in no time."

Anna went over and sat on a nearby rock to rest her legs.

"Hey, what's the matter, Ann?" Frisk asked in a caring voice as he walked over to where she was.

"As I said before, I'm tired. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to climb. This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I really don't want to go on."

Frisk let out a sigh. It seemed that his friend was far less determined to get up this mountain than he was.

"Alright, we don't have to go to the top," Frisk caved and sat on the large rock beside Anna, "but since we came all this way, we might as well do something up here to make it worthwhile."

"That sounds fair," Anna agreed. "Though it can't be something too long. We still need to get back down this mountain. What should we do?"

Frisk gave it some thought. "How about…we play a game?"

"A game?" Anna repeated.

"Yeah, you know, playing something up here with the view of everything around. It could be fun."

"Alright." Anna pushed herself off of the rock. "What do you have in mind?"

"Hmm," Frisk tried to think of a game they could play that could be fun to do on a mountain. Not many came to mind.

"Well…how about…Humans and Monsters? We haven't played that game in awhile," he suggested while pushing himself off the rock.

"True…true " Anna agreed. "Sure, that sounds fun. But, are you sure you want to play it with your bandage?"

Frisk, having momentarily forgotten that he even had a bandage on, looked over to it and gave a shrug.

"Again, it doesn't hurt. I'll will be fine."

"Alright,"Anna replied before giving the game some thought. "Um… it would be your turn to be the monsters, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess it is."

"If you don't want to be them, I can be the monsters again. You know I don't mind."

"No, that wouldn't be fair. I'll be the monsters."

Of course, no one _wanted_ to be the monsters, as the monsters always lost. The game 'Humans and Monsters' would go the same way every time. Both Frisk and Anna would pretend fight each other with 'swords' which in reality were, sticks, metal bars, and the like. Whoever was the monster would lose the fight on purpose, and the person playing the human would chase then into the 'underground,' which normally was just their house when they were playing it in the city, or just some large rock when playing in the fields.

True, the game was easy and rehearsed, but Frisk and Anna always found it fun to live out history for themselves, and stick fighting was always more fun if you have a purpose to fight for. A few times, Anna had proposed the idea that the monsters win once in awhile, but Frisk shut her down, as that wouldn't be historically accurate.

Frisk and Anna both went in different directions to look for something to fight with. He quickly scanned around the area for anything that could count as a 'weapon'. Since there were trees all around them, there were tons of sticks lying on the ground. Not just any stick would do, however. It had to be one with a firm handle, and without any other branches on it. It had to be balanced and thick so it could take multiple hits from the other person's stick. It also needed to be the right length, not too long, but also not too short.

As far as Frisk was concerned, stick fighting was pretty much an art.

Frisk continued to look around for the perfect stick, or at least, one that was adequate. Frisk found a pile of them on the ground and started to sift through them. He checked the first one.

Nope, too short. He threw it behind him. Next.

No, too flimsy. He dropped that one beside him. Next.

He picked up another one. This one was the right size and weight, but two other branches had grown on it, making it unwieldy. He stood up and placed his leg on one of the branches, pushing down with heavy force.

 _Snap_

Frisk did the same thing to the other branch.

 _Snap_

Afterwards, he held the stick up high to examine it. It was alright. Not the best, but decent. It would do.

Frisk looked around to see if Anna was done yet. She had just decided on one several meters away from Frisk's position. It was a little smaller than Frisk's, but slightly thicker, so it made up for it.

The two of them walked over to each other and stood there in silence. After a few quiet moments, they both raised their 'swords' and got into fighting stances. No words needed to be spoken now. This was a battle to decide who was the strongest. The humans, or the monsters.

Anna took the first move and swiped her stick across to hit Frisk. He dodged by jumping backwards and countered with a stab, which Anna deflected pretty easily. She then jumped towards him and thrusted a stab of her own. Frisk did nothing and let the attack hit him. The blow hit him in the side, but it didn't hurt too much. After all, they weren't trying to injure each other. Frisk jumped back and got ready for another attack.

Frisk, of course, wasn't fighting at his full strength. If he was fighting at his best, that attack would have never landed. But, the monsters were supposed to lose, so he had to play it easy.

The clanking sound of wood hitting wood echoed throughout the mountain as fight continued. It would go back and forth. Anna would attack, Frisk would dodge or deflect it and attack back. Anna would do the same thing and Frisk would not dodge the next attack. Again, it might have seemed tedious to some, but this wasn't the full game. What happened next was the fun part.

Eventually, Frisk decided that enough fighting had been done and it was now time to get into the next stage of the game.

After a blow to his arm, Frisk pretended to be hurt and clutched the area that was recently struck with an attack. Then falling onto his knees, he cried out "No! You have defeated me!" in his most dramatic voice that he could muster. "Now I must retreat!" he yelled. A smile slowly formed on his face, and a similar one appeared on Anna's. They both knew what was going to happen next.

As fast as the wind, Frisk pushed on one leg and jumped up onto his other. He started to run away from Anna, up the mountain side in his 'retreat'. The girl was prepared for this and started to run after him.

At this point in 'Humans and Monsters', the game pretty much turned into a Tag-Hide-and-Seek kind of game. Whoever was the monster ran away from the human and tried to hide for as long as possible while the human tried to herd them into the 'underground', which in this case would be the bottom of the mountain, because that would make the most sense. However, on this mountain, there were plenty of places to hide, so Frisk would actually have a chance to get away from Anna. The only problem would be running from her to be able to hide.

Then again, if the monsters actually got away, that wouldn't be accurate to history, so he would have to come out eventually.

Gripping the stick in his hand, Frisk momentarily looked behind him as he climbed the incline of the mountain. Anna was a not far behind him, and was catching up quick. She bore a large grin on her face.

"Get back here!" she yelled in a playful voice.

"Nah, I'm good," Frisk yelled back with his own smile. He turned his head back around and looked straight ahead so he wouldn't hit any trees on his way up.

After a few more seconds of running, Frisk turned his head back for a second before facing forward. Anna was now getting closer and Frisk would have to come up with a strategy if he wanted to get away from her. He started to strafe left and right in between trees, hoping to disorient his pursuer.

In the end, however, it was Frisk's endurance that won the day. Eventually Anna started to get tired of running up a mountain, as most people would, and began to slow her chase. Frisk, on the other hand, wasn't feeling any sort of exhausted, and kept running. He continued sprinting up the mountain until Anna was completely out of sight. Frisk slowed to a jog and then to a walk before fully stopping at a halt. He put his hands on his knees and started to breath heavily. Even though he didn't stop, the mountain was still tiring, and he needed to catch his breath now while he had the chance.

Frisk looked down the mountain once more to check if Anna was coming.

She wasn't.

Frisk bore a triumphant smile. Now all he had to do was find a place to hide and hold out of as long as he could. However, it did occur to him that Anna might get bored, give up, and then head back to the city, leaving Frisk alone on this mountain at night. This thought scared him. He decided that it might be for the best to head back down and look for Anna. He had won the game as much as the monsters could win, and he was satisfied with that.

Standing up straight, Frisk put a hand over his eyes and looked across the horizon. The vast expanse of land that flowed out in front of him was dazzling. Add to the fact that the sun was just about to set and casted an orange hue on everything, and this was truly a beautiful sight of the landscape.

Frisk flipped his stick to his other hand, whipped out his phone and took a picture of the sunset with the camera.

 _Click_

After he snapped the shot, he took a closer look at the photo and nodded. He would have to show this to his parents when he got back. Sure, they would yell at him because he wasn't supposed to be up here, but it would probably be worth it.

Just then, Frisk's phone turned off automatically. A red, battery notification flashed on the screen, informing its owner that it had run out of power and needed to be charged. Frisk took note that he would have to rejuice it when he got back. It was a good thing that he had taken the picture when he did. A few seconds more and he would have been too late.

Frisk took a glance back up at the mountain. Because of all the running he had been doing to get away from Anna, he had climbed a lot more of the mountain and didn't know it. He knew that he needed to get down the mountain, but he was so close to the top. He just couldn't stop now.

Frisk, determined to get up to the peak, and with his breath back, started to climb what was left of the mountain.

The climb was tedious. Even Frisk had had enough of this mountain and just wanted to be at the top already. The thought of being able to look out across the surroundings from the peak of the mountain and telling his friends about it was the only thing keeping him going.

In about three minutes' time, Frisk had almost made it to the top. He rested his free arm on a nearby tree and stopped for a bit. Breathing in and out from his exercise, Frisk looked out across the scenery in front of him. It didn't look that much different from where he was before, but was just as pretty as before. He was just sad he couldn't take a picture of it again.

Now that he was so close, Frisk pulled all the energy he had left and continued to go up the last few steps that he had.

But something was off.

Near the top, instead of the mountain curving into a point, it instead stopped and plateaued, making the peak flat instead of a point, like most mountains were. This drew Frisk closer to the top, being the very curious person that he was. Finally, he made it to the top, and what he found was not what he was expecting.

In front of him was a large, steep hole that covered most of the peak. It was pitch black as far down as Frisk could see. The abyss below looked daunting, and it was certainly not what Frisk had thought would be up on the top of this mountain.

"Wonder where this goes," Frisk pondered out loud. He would have to tell Anna about this. It was, after all, pretty crazy that you would find a gigantic hole on top of a mountain. He really wanted to explore what was down there, but he wasn't just about to jump down, (Frisk wasn't that reckless) and he really needed to get back to the city, as the sun was now just below the horizon. Frisk turned around and prepared to head back down the mountain.

They say you should be careful what you wish for, even if it's a chance to explore a cave, because you just might get it all.

As Frisk turned around, his foot got caught on a root that had made its way above the ground. The arch that the wood made was the perfect trap for Frisk's foot. This unexpected object caught Frisk off guard, and caused him to lose his balance. He tried to regain it by flailing his arms back and forth, but that seemed to do just the opposite and made him fall all that much faster.

Once he was beyond the center of gravity, Frisk knew that there was no way he could get back upright. He braced himself for the crash into the ground that was inevitable. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any sticks or roots on the ground that would make this tumble even more painful.

Fortunately for Frisk, none of that stuff was behind him.

Unfortunately for Frisk, nothing else was, either.

Expecting to hit ground, Frisk was slightly confused when he continued falling even after he was completely horizontal. A moment of confusion was followed by a moment of horror as Frisk finally grasped what was happening.

Fear gripped him as he started to fall into the large, black hole. He let go of his stick and once again threw his arms in different directions trying to grab onto anything, but nothing around him felt like using the energy to reach out and catch him. The root from earlier almost mocking him out of his reach.

As the sky got smaller and smaller and Frisk continued to fall, faster and faster into the fading blackness, Frisk's heart was racing. Quickly, he grabbed his heart amulet and closed his eyes, braced for wherever this hole led. He said a silent prayer out of fear. Before he was able to finish it, Frisk felt the ground beneath his body, and everything went black.

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 **Thanks for reading. It would help me out a lot if you could tell me how you thought of it.**


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